Long Ring Long Land Arc
The Long Ring Long Land Arc, is the fourteenth story arc, and the first in the Water 7 Saga of the One Piece manga. It focuses around a contest between the Straw Hat Pirates and the Foxy Pirates, called the "Davy Back Fight". It is also the setting of the meeting between Admiral Aokiji and Monkey D. Luffy. Long Ring Long Land is the sixth island the Straw Hat Pirates encounter on the Grand Line. Summary The Davy Back Fight Luffy and his crew arrive at the island of Long Ring Long Land, a bizarre island where everything, including the animals and plants, stretches in either length or height. Despite Nami's warning Chopper, Usopp and Luffy go exploring and find an unoccupied house, a tall horse and two "walking" stalks of bamboo. They break the bamboo and Tonjit plummets down. Tonjit has lived on the bamboo stilts for 10 years. He is delighted that his horse, Shelly, waited for him for so long although his folk are nomads and left the place years ago. He also tells the Straw Hats the geography of Long Ring Long Land, which consist of ten islands that are connected and can be walked between on foot during a big ebb every year. Tonjit's tribe changes the island every three years. After that he takes Shelly for a ride. .]] In the meantime, the Going Merry and the rest of the crew are surrounded by an unnamed pirate crew, stating that their Captain wants to play the Davy Back Fight with Luffy. Back at Tonjit's house, Chopper, Usopp and Luffy watch Tonjit riding Shelly just to see her getting shot by Foxy the Silver Fox, who asks Luffy to play the Davy Back Fight. In the Davy Back Fight, members of each pirate crew face off in different events in which the winner of the event can steal crew members of the losing team, even the captain. The Jolly Roger can also be taken and with it the dignity of the crew. Foxy tricks Luffy who is angry for the unprovoked attack at Shelly and unknowingly accepts. Basic Rules Of The Davy Back Fight *The contestants for each event are chosen by the captains before the game begins and the contestants cannot be changed. Contestants can only participate in one event. Since the line-ups cannot be changed, the winning team can steal a crew member that is competing in the next event to give their team an advantage. *If a crew member is lost in one event, they can be won back in the next event, but not in future Davy Back Fights after the current one is over, unless the captains of both crews involved agree to another Davy Back competition. *All crew members that are won must immediately swear permanent allegiance to their new captain. *Any form of cheating is not allowed during the contests, and the Foxy pirates use this to their advantage by having their referee play dumb when they cheat, putting the Straw Hats at a major disadvantage. When Luffy's crew play against Foxy's crew, they play a best two-out-of-three game. The events that are played are Donut Race, Groggy Ring, and Combat. Donut Race In this event, three members of each crew must build a make-shift boat out of nothing but three barrels and two oars. Each team then races around the island, trying to avoid obstacles and enemy cheating in order to make it to the finish line first. Each team is given an Eternal Pose so that they can find their way back to the island if they get too far away from the shore. A team of Nami, Usopp, and Robin face a team of Porche, Capote, and Monda in the manga. Though the Straw Hats manage to get in the lead, Foxy cheats and uses his Devil Fruit to slow them down enough for his team to pass them. Foxy takes Chopper to be part of his crew and while Chopper starts crying over how he doesn't want this and how he only went out in the sea with Luffy to be a Straw Hat, he starts saying he doesn't want this and refuses to be a part of Foxy's crew and starts crying more, prompting Zoro to slam his drink to the ground and yell at Chopper to shut up, stating it's shameful what he's doing. He tells Chopper he was the one who chose to go out to sea and not Luffy. They accepted the game and lost and tells Chopper he shouldn't be crying and as a man he should sit back, shut up and watch the rest of the games as they win him back. Nami scolds Zoro over his mean treatment to Chopper, however, Chopper realizes he's right and mans up, surprising Nami as Zoro declares they will win him back. Groggy Ring In this event, the teams of three from each pirate crew choose one of their members to be the 'Ball', and the other team has to try and knock the opposing team's ball into the goal once. This event forbids the use of weapons, as it is a sport, though other kinds of cheating are allowed. Zoro and Sanji take on a team of 3 known as the Groggy Monsters. Chopper was to participate, but Foxy won him in the previous game. However, the Groggy Monsters use weapons and the referee pretends he doesn't see them. After much difficulty, mostly due to fighting between the two crewmates, and partly due to a bias on the referee's part against them, Sanji and Zoro team up and defeat the Groggy Monsters. Captain's Fight This event is a duel between the two captains. A cannon is spun to randomly determine the fighting area, and the goal is to knock the opposing captain out of the fighting area. When Luffy and Foxy fight in this competition, the battle takes place on Foxy's ship, which is full of traps and weapons to give him the advantage. Before the match, Usopp persuades Luffy that wearing a large afro wig will increase his strength. Its actual effect, if any, unknown, but eventually, and despite his foe using several of the ship's weapons and even robotic battle suits, he manages to defeat Foxy by reflecting his beams back at him using a mirror and punching him into the ocean. In the manga, Foxy's flag is taken. The Encounter with Aokiji After Luffy has beaten Foxy and taken their flag (replacing it with one of his "drawings"), it is revealed that he only fought for Tonjit and Shelly. Back at the house they run into a very tall and thin guy who is sleeping while standing in front of the house. After removing his sleeping mask, Robin is shocked as the guy turns out to be Aokiji, one of the three admirals of the Marines. Aokiji states that he is privately on the island, does not seek a confrontation and only wanted to see where Robin ended up after leaving Alabasta. After that he helps out Tonjit to get to his tribe by freezing the path to the next island with the power of the Hie Hie no Mi. After Tonjit leaves, Aokiji confronts the crew as he sees them a threat for the world. The biggest threat he sees is Robin for her ability to read the Poneglyph and tells the crew that every organization Robin belonged to does not exist anymore and she is the only survivor each time. Robin attacks Aokiji, but fails and Aokiji tries to retaliate with a strike from a sword he instantly made by freezing grass. Zoro blocks the strike and Sanji kicks the sword away, but both get caught by Aokiji, freezing Sanji's leg and Zoro's arm. Luffy tries a punch, but only gets his fist frozen on Aokiji's body. Aokiji freezes down Robin while Robin states she really did try to change and how she may have found her home and as she's frozen Aokiji tries to shatter her with a punch, but Luffy saves her. When Aokiji tries to stomp her, Usopp grabs her from Luffy's arms and runs to the ship along with Nami and Chopper to unfreeze her. Luffy sends Zoro and Sanji after them declaring he'll fight Aokiji one-on-one. Chopper and Nami tend to the frozen Robin in order to unfreeze her, and Zoro and Sanji use the ocean to heal their frozen limbs. Usopp says that they should go back for Luffy despite Zoro saying otherwise, which prompts Usopp to yell that they need to go back. He thinks that Sanji and Zoro don't care for Luffy's safety, which enrages Sanji and tells Usopp that Luffy demanded to be alone in the duel and they need to believe in him. Luffy battles Aokiji but only ends up being entirely frozen. Aokiji spares Luffy due to his defeat with Crocodile stating they are even but wonders if Luffy only wanted to buy time for the others or really thought he could beat him. However he does not pursue the Going Merry stating that the crew will be destroyed by Robin sooner or later anyway. As he leaves he considers giving Luffy a message from Smoker, but states it would be too confusing (and Luffy wouldn't be able to hear since he's frozen). Luffy is later found by the rest of the crew and is, like Robin, defrosted. However, Usopp is exhausted by all this and wonders if more opponents this strong will just keep appearing on their journeys stating he thinks he can't handle the pressure anymore and they may be done for. Zoro says it doesn't matter since Luffy may have lost, but he became stronger from fighting Aokiji. The crew continues their journey three days later. Story Impact *The Long Ring Long Land Arc is more of a recreational arc in the middle of two larger arcs that are Skypiea and the couple Water 7/Enies Lobby. However, it introduces one of the Marine's greatest forces with Admiral Aokiji and foreshadows Robin's mysterious past. *"Luffy, doing everything to get his crew back" can be seen as an introduction to the "Rescue Robin" operation in Enies Lobby. *Two important decisions are made for the Straw Hats Pirates on their next objectives which would foreshadow the events for the Water 7 arc: Nami suggesting to use the money they earned from the treasures found in Skypiea to repair the Going Merry, along with Luffy making an intelligent choice to find and recruit a shipwright for the crew. *The defeat dealt by Aokiji prompts Luffy to create new fighting techniques, that will be Gear Second and Gear Third used for the first time during the Enies Lobby Arc. However the defeat also had negative impact on Usopp who begins to question his strength in the crew. It later came to boiling point in the Water 7 arc following the beating he received from the Franky Family, his inability to protect the money to fix the ship, and the conflict with the Going Merry prompted him to leave the crew over his inadequacy as a Straw Hat member. * Kuzan mentioned Luffy's grandfather as a man who did him a favor. Luffy was terrified at the mention of him that he did not want to tell Usopp who he is. It will not be until Post-Enies Lobby arc we learned that his grandfather was Garp who already made an appearance in a cover story. * This arc was a take on a lightheartedness of the story before going into a dark arc. Also this arc explores the relationship between Usopp and Luffy before the duel in Water 7. References Arc Navigation Site Navigation